A survey and projection on medium access control protocols for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Recent advances in wireless communications and sensor technologies have enabled the development of low-cost wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for a wide range of applications. Medium access control (MAC) protocols play a crucial role in WSNs by enabling the sharing of scarce wireless bandwidth efficiently and fairly. This article provides a survey of the literature on MAC protocols for WSNs. We first briefly describe the unique features of WSNs. We then review representative MAC protocols from the following four categories: contention-based protocols, contention-free (scheduled-based) protocols, hybrid protocols, and preamble sampling protocols. Our discussions focus on the background, main features, operation procedures, major design issues, and the advantages and disadvantages of these protocols. We also present an analysis of the inherent and desirable features of the protocols, and the key challenges of MAC technology for WSNs. Finally, we present our view on future research directions for WSN MAC protocols in a reader-friendly way using illustrative diagrams.